New SECU Property Management Firm Aims To Keep Members in Homes

The new property management firm launched by the 1.8 million-member, $25.5 billion State Employees' Credit Union has a somewhat unusual goal, whenever possible to help foreclosed members stay in the homes the credit union has just had to take over.

“What we hope to do is, in certain cases when we have to foreclose, is to rent the property back to the homeowner who couldn't afford the mortgage payments,” said Leigh Brady, senior vice president for SECU and in Raleigh, N.C.

The goal, she explained, is to help reduce trauma to the homeowners and their family during a trying time and to keep them stable. Families staying in the homes remain in the same school districts, for example, and provide stable renters for the credit union.

The new property management firm, known as SECU*Real Estate, or SECU*RE, will also work with real estate professionals to sell homes as well as with contractors to remodel and rent homes, particularly in the Durham, N.C., area, Brady added.